The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: David Pagnotta on the Leafs Lack of Response, NHL Global Series, Schmaltz Extension, and more

Episode Date: March 14, 2026

Jeff is joined by NHL insider David Pagnotta to take a deeper look at the aftermath of the NHL Trade Deadline, discussing the moves teams made, the deals that didn’t happen, and what it all means for contenders and rebuilding clubs as the 2025-26 NHL season pushes toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The conversation also touches on the NHL Global Series announcement, what it means for the league’s international growth, and how events like these continue to expand the NHL’s presence around the world.Subscribe to the channel for more daily NHL coverage, interviews with players and insiders, and in-depth hockey discussion.#NHL #TheSheet #JeffMarek #DavidPagnotta #SamCarrick #BuffaloSabres #NHLTradeDeadline #NHLTrades #StanleyCupPlayoffs #Hockey #NHLNews #Sabres #NHLGlobalSeries #HockeyPodcastLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave, how long does it normally take you to recover after a day like that where you're working your thumbs and working your tongue on the air and working your brain all day long? Yeah. I enjoyed a very quiet weekend. It was, yeah. A couple days going into Monday was nice and pleasant and calming and quiet and recharge and all that. So, yeah, I enjoyed the weekend off. Okay, you're back into the swamp this week, though. right back into the mud, right back into the rumors, right back into the, all of it right now.

And before we get to, and I want to get an update on Alex Tucker, if there is one, Sam Carrick, his teammate with the Buffalo Sea, was coming up on the program. A little bit later on, your thoughts on what we saw yesterday, Toronto May Police, Anaheim Doc, second period, Radco Gudis, this isn't new. Like, no one should be surprised. Nobody should feign outrage here. Radco Goodos and Austin Matthews, need-to-knee, Austin Leaves. there's a hearing today, not in person, the DOPS, and Radko Gudis, just having a look at the hit here.

I mean, you have to squint really, really hard to not see something significantly wrong with this incident. Although the one thing that people have picked up on here, and I want to get your thoughts on the hit, and then the lack of follow-up from the Maple Leafs, a lot of players out there cutting their laces, man. A lot of people out there cutting their laces and just sort of skating around and saying, you're going to do something, you're going to do something? I'm not going to do something. Is you going to do something? First of all, your thoughts on the hit, your thoughts on this not being in person,

this being a phone hearing for Goudis. Yeah, a little bit surprised initially. I heard last night that it was going in this direction. Well, I don't like to hit. I think it's a little bit irresponsible the way he throws his knee out. I know everything's in the moment, and this game is freaking fast. But, you know, I don't, for a veteran player like Radco Gudis, he knows better. And I mean, I think this should have been in person, or at least giving them the option,

because you can incline it and then still have that possibility to suspend over five games. I didn't like the hit because, again, the player delivering it knows that that's a big no-no. and even if it's even if it's in the moment, even at that high tempo pace that these guys play at, you know not to do that. And that's the biggest issue for me is the fact that it was a player like him. And by that, I mean, just a veteran player that is definitely physical, that should know better.

That's why I have such a big issue with what happened. And then I have almost as equally big issue with the lack of response. Just nothing in the moment. I don't care if you didn't see it or claim to not have seen it. Your captain is down on the ice holding his knee typically means it was a knee shot. And I don't care if it's Radco Gudis. You have to go in there and do something to stand up for your captain.

Or, I mean, your teammate in general. But, you know, it's your captain and he's holding his knee. Something foul probably happened. So get in there. I'm not a fan of that. The thing that, and there's a couple of things here, a couple of examples that I want to raise. And I mean, one may seem like tongue in cheek,

like I'm just having a joke at something, but like it isn't as if we haven't seen Maple Leafs players have responses to the thing. If we go back to a game not too long ago against the Ottawa senators, you know, Ridley Greg fires a slap shot into an open net. Okay, well, that's fine. That got a response. My feelings are hurt, got a response. Morgan Riley and Max Domi gets in like, okay, so he hurt your feelings,

so you hounded him down and cross-checked him. Raggogutus takes a knee-on-knee at your captain, and it's elevator practice. Yeah, I don't get it. And correct me if I'm wrong, didn't something happen in that game where somebody got hit before that incident happened with Greg and there was no response. Or was that a different game?

I might be thinking of a different game. I think you're right. No, I think you're right. Okay. So no rest. And then you see the response afterwards. And then we saw afterwards as the game progressed, the Leafs started to muck it up a little bit and whatnot.

Okay, great. Hang on, Easton Cowan did after a hit on Robertson and he went at Jackson Lecombe. Yeah. Yes, that's right. Hang on. Why Easton Cowan? Why Easton?

again like that how's that bench not embarrassed yeah i'm glad someone did it i'm glad someone did it too but but you're right no it shouldn't it shouldn't have been you know get you know pizettas back out there get benny somebody so like somebody to to to get in there and and muck things up and you didn't do it the thing that the thing that it really reminded me of was last year with the Buffalo Sabres. And this to me was like the low, this, the low point of the Buffalo Sabres season.

It was Steph Nason taking a run at Tage Thompson. Healthy run. Thompson's down. And everybody on the ice, the Buffalo Sabres, same thing. Everyone's like looking for loose change on the ice or staring up into the crowd trying to find their parents. And Tage Thompson was on Camden's Trick podcast

in the summer saying that still bothers them. Now, you look at like that Sabres team to this Sabres team right now, I mean, it's night and day. It's night and day. But they got to that low where their star player was trucked by Steph Nason and no one did a thing about it. That's what that reminded me of. And I threw the tweet out, it's Anthony Stewart's dad, who always has the famous saying, are you a club or are you a team? and you're going to have a really hard time convincing me that that's a team.

That's a club. That's 23 guys and 23 Ubers. That ain't a team. Yep. You know, Buffalo had a meeting after that. I think it was players only about what they should have done and what they didn't do.

It kind of helped a little bit. I think there was another incident, the game after a couple games after. Against Columbus. I can't remember who the defender was. Was it Jacob Brist? I can't remember with it. And he had to, probably had to fight Matthew Olivier.

Like of all of people. I remember that as Columbus the next thing. Yeah, I mean, and I get it. Like, Toronto, it would have had to have been Goudis. And you probably would have got your clock clean. But do something. That's not the point. Yeah, exactly.

Get in there and do something. And we've, look, I'm not, I'm not in, you know, the least room every day, you know, for every game or for certainly not every practice. But I'm there enough to recognize that. there is a little bit of a discussion room. And there shouldn't be. Like, they're good. And I'm not saying these are bad people or bad guys or anything like that.

I know a lot of the guys are good guys. It's a good, from that perspective, you know, they're good guys. But you've got to be, like, there's some type of disconnect there within that room. And going back to your point, Anthony says, that's quote, you know, that's, it doesn't seem like it's a team mentality. And again, if I turn around and. And I don't see anything. And my buddy's on the floor, you know, outside and he's holding his eye. Something probably happened, you know.

So I'm going to get involved in some fashion. And then find out the facts afterwards. If my captain's on the ice holding his knee, pretty good indicator that something happened. So get in there. And pretty good indicator if the ref or the linesman is holding Goodus that he's the culprit. Get in there. And but they Even if not

The thing about it is even if not then Because Gudis gets the punt Okay Got it Right Yeah Send the message back Other players on that team

Right Like I remember We did a We did a thing with Wendell Clark this year And we went back and looked at You know the Marty McSoli fight from 93 In the Kings Maple Leaf series And like look like Marty

Wendell kept going at Wayne and Marty's like enough enough enough and it didn't stop and he went at Marty and Wendell had that great fight after the Martin McSorley elbow on Doug Gilmore and Wendell said my problem was I shouldn't have gone after Marty I should have gone after Wayne shouldn't have to win yep

but so like what I don't understand is okay like your bull just got Gore And then what's the first thing we saw at the beginning of the third period? Cried to cross checks Calli Yarn Croke, the face. Or just below his chin.

I'm like, holy smokes. And I'm not, and I know you're not either. We're not advocating for, you know, going out there and hurting guys and knee for a knee kind of thing. But go finish your check a little harder. Send a message. Go knock a guy out.

You don't have to go after the knee, but go after some of their guys. And again, no response. And it's not a matter of, you know, Willie's not going to drop the Mids or Mo's not going to do this. Or these guys aren't typical aggressive fighting type of, you know, caliber players. I don't care. Go out there and get a little bit dirty and defend your teammate.

They didn't do that because I don't think they have the guys to do that. There's no, like, that's a big, that's a big tell for me, Jeff. Like, that's a huge tell as to why this is this room, this team is in, really the shambles that it's in. The thing is, like, it's not as if the Tampa Bay Lightning are full of killers. No, right. It's not like the Buffalo Sabres are full of killers. Like, they brought in Sam Carrick. They brought in, you know, Logan Stanley.

They brought in Luke Shen, like to add some muscle to the lineup. And that certainly helps. But it's not as if, you know, this is like, hey, look over there. It's, you know, a team that has Marty, the old Oilers, right? Martin McSorley, Kevin McClelland, Don Jacks, like, Dave Semenco, like, it's not that at all. It's just a mentality of,

if someone hits our team, it doesn't matter who. How many times do you've seen in Tampa Bay Lightning game? We're the first two in the scrummer, Sorrelli and Kucheroff. Yeah. Are they killers? Get in there. Like, I can't imagine,

like, I think Barubei did a good job in holding back after the game because I can't imagine what he was feeling in that moment. Dude, his wires would have crossed, his eyes would have rolled back and ring no sail. Oh, man. Right, like, could you just, I mean, if he was on that, if he was on the ice or on the bench, or even back like, you know, Tucker Corson, those guys, like, domy, like, they don't have those caliber guys, which is for future retaliation.

But to your point, the buffaloes and the Tampa's and some of the other teams, they don't have all of those guys either. but they go out there and they muck it up when they need to. They're thinking about it now and this always happens it's the classic story

when one of your guys gets run then all of a sudden you realize oh yeah maybe we need someone with a physical slant here you know Harry Sindh didn't used to have a great line

about goaltending but it's also true about toughness and Harry Sindin used to say about goaltending he would say goaltending is like oxygen I only think about it when I don't have it and you can say the same thing about toughness.

You don't think about it until you don't have it. And when you don't have it, sometimes it's really, really obvious. It's really, really obvious. And that was yesterday. You know what kind of teams think about it? The ones that win. Yeah. They have those pieces.

Yep. Toronto doesn't. And again, not talking about the fighters, talking about the guys with the heart on the sleeve mentality. It's too bad. You know that Craig Bruey thought about it last night, as did Brad Trilliving, as did Keith Pelley as well. Like I wonder, too, in a losing season like this, when it's one thing to lose, we'll end on this, we'll move along. It's one thing to lose.

And I always think about, okay, so what's happening to the brand here now? Okay, like what's happening with the Maple Leafs brand? It's another season of losing, not even going to make the playoffs this year. And then that happened. So not only is that brand a losing brand. but now that brand is getting sand kicked in its face on the beach as well and they're not able to do anything about it and that's where someone like Keith Pelley comes in because this doesn't just affect you know Craig Barubi doesn't just affect Bradtre Living like even something like that goes

even higher where now all of a sudden everybody in that building everybody who watched that is feeling now another different way about this team that they share for. Not only are they losing, they're getting beaten up and their star players getting beaten up and no one's doing anything.

They're getting embarrassed, Jeff. They're getting straight up embarrassed. Like, it's a bad look. It's a... Tallyate in three weeks when they play the ducks in Anaheim, it's not going to matter. You didn't do it when it was supposed to happen.

That's embarrassing. And I end the season now for them because you got another five weeks of this. Just crawl through the next end of the season here, these empty calorie games. Okay, I mentioned the Buffalo Sabres a second ago. A story you've been on all season long and sometimes no information is still information. Anything on Alex Tuck. Yeah. Listen, I always think of you too

because there's always a cutaway when there's a big moment at a Buffalo Sabres game, great production, there's always a cutaway to Alex Tuck as well where it's like, okay, so what's your decision now? What's your decision now? Is there an update there?

Slow zoom. No. But there was some people wondering because the trade deadline's now passed and he wasn't getting moved. That was the expectation. Would they shelf talks until after the season?

I'm told no. There's been no decision on that from either side. And I don't think there's a desire to on the player side either. I think from what I've been told, still open. They're willing to have those discussions at any point on both sides. So they're not, you know, in some circumstances, let's focus on the playoffs. We're battling for first. That's where the focus should be. And that's probably where it is.

But there's an indicator where, hey, let's, you know what, let's focus here. We'll talk about the contract after the season. That hasn't happened with Alex Tuck. So there's still an opportunity to hammer something out before the end of the season. But conversations, I'm told, still nothing on that front progress-wise. But the only update is, again, some people were wondering about it. Not the case. They're willing to have those conversations still at any point.

Okay. So he's still available then as of right now for July 1st. Someone who's off that word is Nick Schmalt. It's eight times eight with Utah. Your thoughts on this one. So take him off the board now for July 1st for our bosses hosting. Yeah, thanks a lot, guys. There's something here, feathers.

It's going to be, we're going to have to get very creative July 1. I'm trying to learn how to juggle, Dave, and working on spinning plates as well. I don't know about you. Whatever, I don't know, whatever it works. We got to figure something out. The Italian in me is going to bring out what the Italian baseball team's doing, and we'll do espresso on the fly and on the spot.

We'll do it on alive on the air. I love it, I love it. Which will be great. So he wanted higher AAV, and because of that, Utah wanted a shorter term. And both sides compromised on getting this done. This also happened in relative short order. So for other guys out there, this is an indicator that, yeah, you can still get something done in a matter of a couple weeks. Because originally, they had shelved conversations, in this case, prior to the Olympic break,

They decided let's wait. And the message that Bill Armstrong had for Kurt Overhart was, let's just wait till the end of the season. But after the Olympics, things were rejuvenated. And it only took a couple of weeks to really hammer this out. Again, he wanted higher A.A.V. The team wanted shorter term. So they compromise in the middle and still kind of hit the number overall that he was hovering around, which is around the $64, $65 million. he gets 64.

But he locks in there. There's no trade protection with it. The other factor in this is, while Utah's not, I believe, a tax-free state, it is very, very low.

So that I think also factored into the final dollar amount to. Seattle's going that way. You see Washington State with their millionaires tax, so you'd be able to take Seattle off that no-state tax board as well. Changing up.

Change things a little there for the cracking? Is that implemented right away. They just voted on it. I'm not, I just saw the one story. My first thought went to the NHL. Like, okay, well, take that, take that state off the board, but haven't followed up. That just happened two nights ago, I believe. You know, one of the things that I was talking to someone about, and this would be of interest to you specifically, was at the Buffalo, Seattle, Buffalo San Jose game last week, or a couple of days ago, rather. And part of the conversations were because, you know, Logan Stanley, it took a while for him to get his paperwork done.

We think of Seattle with Bobby McMahon. And one of the things that a lot of people have been talking about is I found out from someone from a Western conference team that they really hate the idea about doing a Friday trade deadline because government offices close as trade deadline closes. And so you can't begin any paperwork to get any of these guys over the border until Monday at the earliest. that, you know, the idea of doing it on a Tuesday is probably better, on a Wednesday, whatever.

But some teams now are saying, like, let's not do that again. Let's not have trade deadline on the Friday. We need to be able to get paperwork in and not have it sit there until Monday morning. Yeah, well, remember, back in the day, but even a few years ago, it was always a Tuesday, I believe. Yes, always. Yeah. And I think, I think because.

of just how the schedule has been the last few years with all the COVID nonsense and then last year the schedule having to change because of four nations and then... Oh, it's right,

about how many days out from the beginning of the season you have traded... Right. 100%. Right. And I think that's been a factor. And I wonder if they do put emphasis

on that to bring it back because next season we're having a, I guess, normal type of season schedule-wise. 84 games. 84 games. I got two more.

Yes. Normal-ish. Yeah. Yes. But because of it being, you know, somewhat normal, and we have All-Starback and here in New York right now, so it'll be on Long Island. It looks like there's, you might be able to move that up

because I think even the schedule itself will be moved up a week or two. Yeah. For playoff time as well. So we've got the Stanley Cup final ending, you know, end of June, June 23rd, I think his last possible game. That's going to get moved up. next season. And then it'll go back to the end of June the following year because the World Cup. But yeah, and it's a good point because, yes, there are teams and there are

some players that have had to wait. Bobby McMahon hasn't played yet. Yep, yeah, because the paperwork, it takes a little bit of time. And, you know, you can only rush it so much when you can't do anything on the weekend. Specifically, just so I understand, specifically for players who haven't played in the country they're going to, right? If you've already played in the United States and you're a Canadian like that, that makes it that much quicker. But if you haven't done that, then, and you're going from a Canadian team to an American team,

Casey and playing Bobby McMahon, things take a little bit longer. How would, by the way, seven days out, I want to get to the NHL Global Series here in Germany in a couple of seconds. But just I'm always curious, like, you know, we have seven days context now in a wider view and sharpening the pencil on things like what happened with St. Louis. And now do we have further thoughts on Colton Perrako and everything else happening with the St. Louis Blues, for example, who was the Mr. trade for the Montreal Canadiens and Ken Hughes and all that. What were your takeaways from deadline this year? A lot of foundation. So I even wrote about this, but I think other people are starting to realize that it seems

like a lot of foundational groundwork was done for what I hope to be a busy June and July draft in July 1, not because of free agency, because of trade activity. And it wasn't just St. Louis or Utah or Seattle or Montreal or Ottawa and so on, even Toronto. It sounded like there were a lot of teams that, I mean, I even throw Pittsburgh and Philly in that. There were a lot of teams that were engaged in conversations with players with term, and I'm not talking just one year left on their deal.

And a lot of that was used or seemed to have been used for, okay, let's check these boxes, and then let's get back to this after the season. and let's get back to this in June around the draft and try to figure things out. Let's see where our draft rankings are and how the first round plays out with lottery and where all the positioning is. And then we can reconvene on some of these discussions

that involve picks and whatnot to kind of sweeten the pot for some of these deals. It wasn't a lack of trying. And we were all busy as heck on Friday. But it just seemed like because of how the free agent pool is lessening and how that's likely to be a trend moving forward. Teams have now shifted towards going in this direction. And that for me was the biggest takeaway.

I thought there was going to be some level of conversations. Last year we saw the Cousins Norris trade. And I thought we'd see a couple of those maybe in the week leading up. And I guess we kind of did with Weeger and whatnot. But I didn't expect that level of conversation to be elevated in the manner in which it was going into deadline and on deadline day as well. And I think that's going to lead to what I, again, what I hoped to be a busy draft in July. Because remember, last year it was supposed to be, we got the Dobson trade and that was kind of it. One of the issues coming off

of this one, certainly with Colton Pereko, Tyler Myers as well, big discussion around no trades and no moves. And everyone's got a thought, everyone's got an idea. You know, here in Canada, of those 40 million of us and we're all general managers so we know how everything should go. But the first, I just for some historical context here, and this might have been the nastiest, like the nastiest thing that I've ever seen around a no trade. So quite famously, Toronto Maple Leaf's captain, Daryl Sittler, when the Maple Leafs from Punch and Lack wanted to move off of Daryl who had a no trade, I believe one of the first in the NHL. They wanted to trade.

I think it was to Minnesota. I'll check with Lou Nanny because I'm curious too, Dave. I think it was to Minnesota. They were trading Daryl Siller. Now, he refused to waive his no trade. And so what the Maple Leafs did instead was they traded his best friend. And Lanny McDonald got moved to Colorado. So you won't move?

We're going to trade him. Like, that's nasty. Like, that's some of the nastiest bit of business we've ever seen in the NHL around no trades. Oh, you won't do what we want with your no trade. We're going to move all your friends off of this team. Now, it's the Maple Leafs, and it was ridiculous. It was a stupid move for them and just dumb trade after dumb trade. I liked Wolf Paymont, but I'll take Lany McDonald in that deal any day of the week.

That was the nastiest I saw. What did you make of just, again, like I'll just throw the floor to you, all of the drama, all the conversation around trades and waving no trades and how many teams have too many no trades. We saw this with New Jersey around Quinn Hughes, even though Tom Fitzgerald. said that no trades weren't an issue around it, okay? What did you make of this conversation this time around about no trades? I mean, I don't have an issue with there being no restrictions tied to, or excuse me, limitations per teams. I think it's fine, you know, from that side of things.

I think it's fully within the player's right to have it. And I think if they're going to concede on that, it's going to take one heck of a deal for the NHLPA to lay off that in the next CBA talks. Oh, yeah. It's as much, look, guys want control, right? And I think some guys are willing to explore moves, but they want to have control over where they're willing to go. Like we heard after the Pareco Buffalo situation that, okay, different scenario, I'll wave.

If you really want me out of here, fine, I'll wave, but here are my parameters. And, look, Vinnie Trocheck, he's got a limited no trade. A lot of teams are out west because he doesn't want to go west. He wants to stay east for family-related purposes and whatnot. And guys have those preferences. I don't really have an issue with it. I'm surprised a lot of these got out the way they did. Like you had a great, you and Wish had a great interview with Robert Thomas earlier this week,

where he admitted that the blues didn't come to him. He didn't ask for a trade and the blues didn't come to him. And a lot of these scenarios play out. Like, guys with no trades get talked about all the time. Everybody does. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Everybody does. Thank you. That's GM's doing their job. 100%. Yes. Exactly. And until they have a deal that they're comfortable with,

they're not going to go to the player and freak them out until they feel, okay, this makes sense for our organization. Fine. Let's go to Robert Thomas. Let's go to Austin Matthews. Let's go to whomever and say, here's what's on the table right now. Yes. Take some time to think about it.

That's what happened with Tyler Myers. Earlier on in this season, there were some teams that poked around on Tyler Myers, and the Canucks said, no, we're not going to go in this direction. And as things progressed and their season blew up, obviously things changed. But they went to him. And that didn't get out for a few days. These other situations got out day of. to the point where the player just really found out.

And then both guys at the time, Uyghur and Pareko, within half an hour it got out and their phones are blowing up. And now there's a whole other level of stress that they got to deal with. Nature of the Beast to a certain extent. But this happens all the time. And these guys get talked about all the time.

Overall, I think it's fine the way it is, to be totally honest. They know it. The players know it. Like no one goes into this. no one goes into this blind and and feel blindsided about being part of a of a conversation

like they can't and sometimes I don't think Robert Thomas is naive to think like oh yeah my name's not being talked about because this army never told me no everybody knows which is why Dave I always find I always find sort of humorous

when I see like Philadelphia is talking to Detroit yeah you can you can tweet that every single day of every year. Exactly. Yeah.

Toronto's talking to Anime. You can probably tweet that every single day of the year because that's their job, man. Yeah. The amount of guys that, you know, just on the GM side alone that I talked to that, hey, I heard something about this. Yeah, I checked in with them. It's not a fit for us. Yeah.

Okay. So I could easily put out there that team A just talked to team B. But I'd be tweeting that 24-7. Yeah. You know, which is why I really do think. I've proposed this so many different times. I'm curious what you think about this. I don't think you and I have ever had this conversation.

Trade deadline day specifically. Make it like draft. And you have an arena, pick a, pick a market, and you have 32 tables. And everything gets done on the floor, cameras on. So you see GMs walking to one table and walking to another table. And just you just, yeah, if someone doing the play by play of the whole thing and back to studio and back to the and the camera on and like, honestly, it. To me, first of what, you'll never get the GMs to sign off on them. They didn't want to go to draft.

Ever, ever, ever. But as far as they creating a TV spectacle, oh, that would be amazing. Sign me up. Like just to what, the call and they're walking over. Yeah, everything. Dun, done, what's going on? Yeah, what are they talking about? Oh, yeah.

It was the same. Yeah, it was just like draft. And you're walking along the floor and you're trying to talk to this guy. And they're like, I can't deal with you right now. I'm dealing with something else. Like, that would be amazing for Broadway. And the GM meetings are this weekend down in Florida. You can have your trade deadline special.

And then, okay, guys, now's GM meetings. And you guys, you're all in the same place. Go handle what you want. Same place. Go have your meeting. Whatever. Yeah. That would be awesome.

There's no chance because they all want, they all want their silos and they want their tiny rooms. They don't want anyone to hear what they're talking about. So alas, we can just sort of dream. By the way, what do you think of the idea? Well, we're just throwing out of it or something. what do you think of the idea of creating two or maybe three trade zones throughout the year where you have a week to make trades and then they're shut down?

And then in a few months there's another zone to make trades and it's only that week and then it gets shut down. There's another zone like maybe in the summer. Other than that, you're just dealing with your team and your farm system. No, no, no. Keep. I want the stuff going all season long all year long. Like the random trade that happens in August, and then the random one that's in November just gets everybody and everything circulating.

Deadlines per action, Dave. Deadlines per action. I know. But to combat that, to argue against it. Yeah. Okay. We only saw what? Two trades happened before the Olympic break. And that was supposed to be the deadline junior.

And that was a deadline at one point. We only saw that, what was it? It was Bukstad and Panarin. And I thought there was going to be more. You know, so it's the ultimate deadline that they know they've got, you know, we still have runway to negotiate and everyone's a master negotiator. So give them that runway. I want it all year long, Jeff. I was like, give me until now.

And then that's it. I was, to be honest with Dave, I was kind of surprised that more teams in the East didn't try to do more, mainly because the Panthers aren't a factor. Florida's out. We think they're going to be back next year. Like no one's going to be surprised. They win the Stanley Cup next year. But Panthers are out. Panthers are out.

And everyone kind of went, okay, cool. And no one really went for it. That surprised me. Because I think, like, well, I mean, some of them, like, you know, Columbus wasn't going to trade Boone Jenner and Charlie Coyle and Marchman, right? And, and I'm still surprised that Washington, ended up moving both those guys, Dowd and Carlson. But at that point, they were trying to do some other stuff.

Like Connor McMichael's name was being tossed around a little bit. And that surprised some people. So I think teams started to gravitate more towards these bigger type of deals or maybe more complex ones. And that's where things kind of focused on. And then some teams that had rental pieces like Toronto kind of waited a little bit too long. you know, like they had a couple things on the table for Scott Lotton, and they didn't submit that trade.

And I think it was like the last minute, maybe two. I think it was literally the last minute that they submitted that that trade was submitted into the queue. You know, so like some teams just kind of waited a little bit too long to sell off some of their pieces. And I think a lot of it was happening in the East and because of that we didn't see more activity. Okay, let me close on this. Global Series announced today, well, part of it anyhow. And I mentioned this on Twitter, too.

There's something that Brian Berks has talked about going back to when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they did an affiliation with Mannheim. And that is a sort of formalized here agreement between the National Hockey League and German ice hockey. And Berkey would always talk about how Germany is going to be the next rising power. They need to do something about their import rule. But it's an athletic culture. They've always all the, they're starting to see like individual players start to pop. And listen, now we have like, you know, Leon Dren.

Seidel and Tim Stutzler, to the best players in the league, you know, at the highest level, both obviously from Germany. Berkey's been talking about this going back to like, I want to say the of like 2008. And now here we are with, you know, a long-term understanding and agreement between the NHL and Germany. Your thoughts? Yeah, well, overdue, certainly. Agreed. Yeah, like, and there's, and there are some other type of deals with some other federation.

and whatnot as well. But to see Germany enter the mix in this regard, you know, the league tried doing some longer-term things in other markets. Like Australia, where they did the preseason game. Yeah. They said they're coming back. They said they're coming back, Dave. I'm still holding my...

Can I go to sleep now? They said they're coming back. I haven't slept. Am I allowed to go to bed now? No, it was supposed to be three years. It was supposed to be... Not necessarily consecutive, but it was supposed to go... Right.

It was supposed to be three times. times. Okay. And then one of them was supposed to be. Calgary, Boston, China, too. Okay, sorry, go ahead. Yeah. Like, so I think they're realizing that, okay, these one-offs are good in certain markets,

but we need the bread and butter is in Europe. Yes. And to have that happen now with Germany, and they will be back. This is, I know some people are going, how come it's not Edmonton and Leon? How come it's not Detroit and Mo cider and whatnot? Like, there's, they're going to be other games. they're going to be, you know, there'll be other games. And they're going to, you want to spread this out.

Obviously, and you have Stutzler. So that's, you know, that's huge as part of it. But they want, they want to expand on their European footprint, which is why last year we saw two sets of games in Europe. This coming season, in addition to Germany, there will be games in Finland as well. And that announcement should be soon. I'm not exactly sure which day,

but we'll get another announcement on that as well. Dallas and California. Yeah. But I don't know the teams. I would imagine it's got to be the stars. But yeah, they're going back. And I'm not sure where exactly in Finland. And I think these games are going to be in November.

So we've got these ones. And then as they announced Germany's in December, the games on the 18th and the 20th. But, you know, kudos. And keep this going. Keep the vibe going. And I think this is going to be a consistent thing. one interesting thing that it was during the stadium series had a chance to speak with Marty Walsh.

And I said, where do you want to see a cool outdoor game? Where would you want to see some type of outdoor vibe? And the first thing he said was Europe, Mannheim. Yeah. So it's not going to be this year or this coming season. But don't be surprised if we get outdoor action somewhere in Germany in the next few years. So I think about this from the NHL perspective, obviously, and also think about it from the European perspective.

And the NHL is, you're right, like they're getting away from just, you know, the one off's going to pop in real quick, pull out some cash, sell us some jerseys, and back home check me out on Facebook. Boom, those days are gone. Right? They have an office in Zurich, et cetera.

So it's good. They're taking Europe more seriously because to your point, like, you're right. Like there's gold in them there hills. Like that's, there is opportunity there for the NHL to do something long term. I also think about it.

from the European point of you like, okay, so here comes the NHL, what are they going to do for us here as a demonstration of their seriousness? I think this Germany thing is a good step and a positive one in the right direction. I'm curious your thoughts on this one. Someone mentioned to me, I think it was earlier on this year, about we were talking about, you know, what could the NHL do as a demonstration to the market that they are serious and send a big message and create something that, to be honest with you, would be a real spectacle and would really spread things out. Now you'd have to buy out some home games.

I understand that. But, you know, work with me on this one. How would you feel if all 32 teams opened up the NHL season in Europe? All 32 in Europe, all spread out. As a way to, first of all, creates a headline. That would be cool. Massive headline. Yes.

Creates a massive headline to a demonstration to that marketplace, like to that, to Europe, that you are serious. And these are games to count here, folks. Like this is like game one for everybody in the NHL all opening up in Europe. What do you think? A couple of things initially. One, Steve Mayer's head just exploded. Trying to think about how to organize that.

Two, really expensive. Yeah, very expensive. Exactly. That would take some mega sponsorship dollars in order for them to pull it off. And just from a cost side. And then trying to manufacture, like you're going to have to get. every PR team all in sync with the NHL's PR. Oh, yeah.

It's a scene. To make sure that this. Oh, yeah. Like, yeah. Yes, it is. Like, that's like years of planning just that alone. It would be cool and sign me up because I would go check out a few of those games for sure. Right.

I usually head over to the global series every year. I didn't this past season, but I think next year I will or in December. And again, I would go to a bunch of these games. You spread that out over a weekend in multiple cities. That would be really cool. Yeah. But holy cow. And the other thing, too, like, you can spread it out.

Like, it doesn't have to be 16 cities. You can have, you can double up games, like one in the afternoon. No. You can get eight cities to pull that off simultaneously. Afternoon game, evening game overseas. That would be pretty cool. It would be pretty cool. All right.

I like that. I like that better than the, yeah. I like that better than that trade season window thing that you, that you're suggesting. I don't like that one, but this one sign me up. I'm all in. That's because you want catnip every day, not just like at three different places in the calendar. You're like that. Right.

Give me, give me some trade talk here, 365. You're the best buddy. Great job again last week. And great job following up this week as well. So we'll stay tuned to all your socials and everything you're writing and broadcasting to find out what's happening next. Thanks, pal. Have a great weekend, Dave. You too.